May 25th, Thursday. The weather was overcast.
Today was the last day of training at Shi University for Sophia Zhou and her group of sports students. Tomorrow, they would leave to adjust their condition and prepare for the provincial competition on May 29th.
It seemed like they were about to part ways, or perhaps the pressure was simply too great. The sports students' spirits appeared somewhat downcast, and their physical condition had visibly deteriorated. After an hour of training, it became clear they hadn't recovered.
The head coach, Kang Gu, also noticed the problem. Knowing that continuing to train them in this state would be counterproductive, he called a halt to the session and let them have free time to do as they pleased. It was as if the sports students had been granted an early vacation.
